Banner at top of page is Much.Too.Large!

I know it's all about advertising space and making money for NC.com, but really, that banner ad at the top of the CurlTalk pages is Much. Too.Large for the convenience and functionality of forum readers, in my opinion. It takes up 1/2 of the vertical space on desktop screen. If the banner ad has to appear, it should have the ability to be reduced in size or closed.

To revive an old thread: I made an account just to leave this feedback. I love NC and I want to support it, but the banner ad at the top makes pages on my PC difficult to read. I'm using adblock and I'd love to whitelist this site, but I'd rather deal with the "turn off adblock, please?" popup than the obtrusive banner ad.